Heat treatment of liquid foodstuffs



Aug. 9, 1949. J. D BOER 2,478,748

HEAT TREATMENT OF LIQUID FOODSTUFFS Filed March ze, 194e WMMvwaL-LM Patented Aug. 9, 1949 V,Johannes de Boer, Rother-dam, Netherlands, f-assignor to Commercieele Bank "N."V., The flingue, Netherlands, a'Dutch company Application 4lldarch ,26, 194:6, mSerial No. 51.21@ -In the Netherlands Jnne Z2, '1944 `Section l1, Public Law 690, :August '8, 1946 Patent .expires .Fume-22, i964 1 claim. (c1. asa-211i) 'My present invention relates to .a VPromiss fol the preparation and ltreatment of durable liquid foodstuffs, tenable Without refrigeration v.or other special measures. One object of the invention is to provide a process of .this general type yielding a nal product 'having wholly or at 'least 4mainly the same properties with regard to ftaste, smell, colour and avoun and above all nutritivevvalue, as the original vnatural product, of course the .only undesirable property of Ithe natural product, the contaminability, being excepted.

Various processes for the manufacture of canned foods are known a1-ready which various components determining the nutritive value .are partly or wholly unchanged. lUp to some years ago, however, the existence 4and characteristics of other components such .as vitamins were hardly or not known, yso that maintenance thereof -Was disregarded. Only recently have preserving methods been developed `in which the vitamins are at least partly maintained.

Another object of the invention is to vprovide a process in Vwhich special attention is directed to the maintenance of these, substances `and more particularly of vitamin C or ascorbic acid, this being particularly sensitive to the destructive iniiuenes of the usual conserving methods;

From the aforegoinigr it follows that the inven- Y tion is v particularly concerned with a method for the preservation of vegetable juices, e. g. fruit ljuices which must be considered to be the 111.0811 important sources of vitamin .C supply. Nevertheless, the vprocess according to the invention also offers considerable advantages in the treatmen of other liquid foodstuis such as milk and milk products, and hence the invention must not be considered to `he jiimited to the treatment of vegetable juices only.

It is an established fact that ascorbic acid is very easiiy oxidized; so long as this oxidation takes piece oniy partly, ,for instance to the reversibiy roducible @hydro-ascorbic acid. little or no harm has been done to the nutritive value of the product When oxidation proceeds, however, the process becomes irreversible and 2,3 diketo-lsillon .acid is formed, which cannot be reduced to vitamin =C and which iS of rio nutritive value.

The oxidative processes set forth are illustrailed the following formulae;

Nowit been .found that mdk and vegetable Juices, .and more particularly :fruits .thy .which name hereinafter also tomatoes will .be designated) and .their vjuices contain free oxygen in the intercellular spaces, and v.moreover enzymes which promote oxidation, and .are `therefore called oxidases; they have the detrimental property 0I contributing to the destruction of vitamin C.

means that the ascorloic4 acidand/.or debydroascorbic vacid content of milk and vegetable products such as fruit and fruit-juices must drop, Whenkeptin storage and also Whenbeing treated. a fact heretofore recognized.

A further object of my invention Ytherefore consists in inactivating the oxidases (and also4 other enzymes, which means an additional advantage) present in the natural product as rapidly as possible. With this object in view my improved method includes the step of passing the liquid to be xpreserved continuously through an externally heated conduit, the rst part of said conduit heing heated more intensively than 'the partbeing passed during further treatment of the liquid. It has been found that the activity of the oxidases increases at increasing temperatures up to a certain maximum, but, when a certain critical temperature is exceeded, the oxidases are permanently inactivated or destroyed. Thus, my invention is based on the recognition that the only way to neutralise the destructive influence of oxidases on the vitamin C content in the nal product consists in heating the product to at least the critical temperature for the oxidases, that in doing so the product must be passedV through a temperature range in which the activity of the oxidases is increased, and that this temperature range must be passed as rapidly as possible.

Apart from protecting the ascorbic acid and dehydro-ascorbic acid, inactivating the oxidases 3 according to the invention offers the auxiliary advantage of preventing various changes in taste and quality materializing during storage of food preserved by any other method; it has been recognized that such changes in taste and quality are mostly caused by oxidation.

According to a preferred embodiment of my invention, inactivating the oxidases is effected within a couple of seconds, and it is obvious that in order to obtain such a rapid heating the wall of the first part of the conduit must be heated to a temperature considerably higher than that which is iinally to be reached by the liquid; in fact only in this way can a sufficient transfer of heat in so short a time be obtained. This high temperature of the conduit-wall, however, involves risk, for there are good chances that some particles of the liquid under treatment will be heated Well above the desired temperature, resulting in all detrimental consequences inherent therein, such as changes in taste, colour, smell, and in some cases nutritive value and digestibility of the product. Therefore, an essential further feature of the present invention consists in the step of creating inmediately in the rst part of the conduit turbulences of such an intensity that superheating of some particles of the liquid is prevented. For this purpose according to my invention I pass the liquid through the conduit at a velocity exceeding the critical velocity for the given conduit and the given liquid. This implies that the liquid does not flow through the conduit in mutually parallel layers but. on the contrary, in a turbulent flow.

It has been proposed to create turbulences in a current of liquid in order to prevent partial superheating. It is old in the art, for instance, `to arrange a coil in the annularspace between two tubes, the liquid owing through the said annular space. Apart from the fact that it is questionable whether in this way turbulences will be created in the liquid flowing in a coil-shaped path, this construction has the drawback that thel apparatus is much more difficult to clean than that which I may use for carrying intoeiect my present invention; for this purpose I may use a normal tubular heater comprising tubes having a smooth inner surface, although the invention is not limited thereto.

Heretofore it has also been proposed to create turbulences in the current cfa liquid flowing through a heater comprising a number of tubes accommodated in one steam jacket, said tubes being subsequently passed by the liquid. by providing mixing chambers betweentwo consecutive tubes. ThisV method, however, is insuillcient for the object of the present invention, forthereby superheating in eachtube separately, and particularly in the first tube, is not prevented. Of course, the invention is not limited to the omission of such mixing chambers; these may be additionally provided without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Although the present invention may be carried into effect both in anyY known pasteurizer or sterilizer of the plate type and in a tubular heater old in the art, I prefer the latter course, inasmuch as the temperature gradient may be readily controlled and the determination of the critical velocity is 'simplied With regard to tubes having a circular cross-'section the critical velocity can be calculated for each specic case in a known way. The critical velocity increases with the ratio of viscosity to density of the liqui'djwith increas- 4 ing smoothness of the tube-wall surface, and with decreasing tube-diameter.

In order to reduce as much as possible the deposit on the inner surface of the tube, this surface is made as smooth as possible; moreover, in order to promote a rapid penetration of heat the diameter of the tube should be relatively small; this implies that two steps are taken which necessitate increase of velocity, inasmuch as by these steps the critical Velocity is increased.

In order that my invention will be easily understood, and may be readily carried into ecect by those skilled in the art, the process according to my invention will. by way of example, be described in detail as applied to fruit juices, reference being held to the accompanying drawing.

For the preservation of fruit-juices various methods are employed; the more common ones have been described for instance by J. Baumann in das Handbuch des Sssmosters.

One of the methods decommended by this writer consists in filling the bottles, heating them to a temperature of to 72 centigrade (158 to 162'deg1ees Fahrenheit) and taking care that the temperature is kept above 65 centigrade (149 F.) for thirty minutes. According to another method the fruit juice is continuously passed through a double walled bell and thereby heated to 72 to 75 centigrade (162 to 167 F), and subsequently slowly cooled down. Baumann quite denitely condemns surpassing this temperature limit.

Although there is some dispute as to the question at which temperature the oxidases are permanently inactivated ordestroyed, the general opinion is that heating up to 80 C. (176 F.) at least is required; hence, the drawbacks of the methods recommended by Baumann are evident:

the juice is kept during a considerable time within the temperature range in which the oxidases have acquired their highest activity and it is not certain at all if a sufficiently high temperature is reached for vpermanently inactivating the oxidases. Y

In the accompanying drawing the differences between the usual methods and that according to the invention are graphically illustrated.

In the drawing, the curves A, C and E represent the temperature gradient oi the liquid under treatment as a function of the duration of the treatment.

The curve A represents the temperature gradient if the liquid is heated from 10 C. to 75 C. (from 50 to 167 F.) in a tube of uniform cross-- section, this tube being passed in 30 seconds. If the outer surface of the wall of the tube is kept throughout the length thereof at about a uniform temperature, for instance about the temperature represented by the straight line B, the temperature gradient of the liquid represented by curve A is dened by an exponential equation.

This curve A also represents approximately the temperature gradient when employing "Baumanns Entkeimungsglocke inasmuch as there too the temperature of the outer Wall of the bell is kept practically uniform at about C. (167 F.) and the annular space between the bells is Vpassed by the liquid to be treated in about 30 seconds.

The drawing shows that the temperature of the juice is for 10 seconds Within the extremely dangerous range from 30 C. to 55 C. (86 to 131 R), this being the range in which the oxidases have their maximum activity; thereupon the nal temperature of 75 C. is reached in fabeut v20 seconds, `a temperature.- whicb may not suice to permanently and completely inactivate the oxidases.

The curve C illustrates by'way of example the temperature gradient of the fruit juice when em.- ploying the process accordngto the invention, whereas curve D approximately represents the temperature gradient ofthe outer surface of the wall of the conduit through which the liquid flows. Here the dangerous range from 30 C. to 55` C. (86 to 131 F.) is passed in about l/f.: second, and the limit of 86 C. (176 F.) is reached in about 11A; seconds, Whereas the final temperature amounts to 110 C. (230 F.) approximately; inasmuch as a higher final temperature;

is chosen the duration of the 'treatment may be considerably reduced, for example to `about to seconds. v

Obviously a suciently high counter-pressure must be applied to the juice to a considerably in the conduit considerably increases on surpassing'the critical velocity, very high entrancepressures are required. when employing the precacording to theinverition.

Insider t0 show that the disadvantages of, the usual methods cannot be remedied by simply increasing the nal temperature, say to 110 C. (230 F.) when heating the outer surface of the conduit Wall to a uniform temperature, the temperature gradient is illustrated for such a case, for example by the curve E, whereas the straight line F approximately shows the temperature of the outer surface of the conduit Wall. In this case the dangerous temperature range from C. to 55 C. (86 to 131 F.) is passed in about 6 seconds, it takes about 11 seconds before the temperature of 80 C. (176 F.) is reached and the entire heat treatment lasts about 30 seconds.

Obviously the process iaccording to the invention, illustrated by curve C is preferable in every respect for obtaining the highest possible quality of the final product.

If an equally rapid initial increase in temperature were obtained by applying a uniform temperature to the outer surf-ace of the conduit-wall the nal temperature would become much too high. as shown in curve C1.

With respect to the magnitude of the velocities to be applied the following may be stated:

When treating cloudy, non-filtered juices of tomato, grape, orange, grapefruit, lemon, good results have been obtained by passing the juice at a velocity of 10 meters (about 33 ft.) per second through a tube having a smooth inner surface and a diameter of 6 millimeters (about 1A inch); the output therefore amounted to 1000 litres an hour.

The tube was intensively heated over about 20 meters (about 66 ft.) of its length, and at this point heating was very rapidly reduced; for the next 65 meters (about 71 yards) heating was slowly decreased; at a total tube-length of 90 meters (about 99 yards) heating was entirely stopped.

The non-uniform heating of the tube may be accomplished in various ways.; e. g. an electric resistance heating coil may be provided around the tube, and I may choosethe pitch of the coil considerably smaller in the first part of the tube than further on; when using electric heating the entire heating zone may also be subdivided and .each-of the parts be provided with ra.

controllable Supply of current.

:The tube may in a manner .old in the art eg- ,tend through several casings; vthen to the .first casing steam is admitted `having a considerably f Mdreovera tubular heater having tubes of a smaller Vdiameter at' the beginning Athan at the end may be employed; thereby the heat transfer Vper uniti of tube-length is increased. Moreover the .velocity of theliquid isl thereby increased;

hence the transfer of heat to the liquid per unit of time is increased in two respects. 4Furthermore, a tube having a thin wall which increases in thickness further on either gradualiy'or step.- wise may be used.

Of course, thermometers or other temperature indicato-rs, preferably' of the self registering must be provided in various places of the iiduid passage in order to permit intelligent control Iand regulation of the temperatures.

After preserving or sterilizing the liquid according to my invention, and substantially as described, the liquid must be cooled down. The easiest manner of effecting this cooling consists in connecting the heated part of the conduit to a part being externally cooled in any way known in the art, for instance by surrounding the conduit by a cooling jacket through which a cooling medium, such as water, is passed. However, cooling may also be effected after the liquid has been filled into a drum, a can, a bottle or any other container. Also a combination of both methods of cooling may be employed by cooling in two stages.

When employing the process according to the invention the liuuid is not necessarily cooled very rapidly, although this course may be adopted for conveniences sake; inasmuch as the oxidases have been inactivated, it does not matter if the product is thereafter kept in the dangerous temperature range of 30 C. to 55 C. (86 to 131 F.) for a considerable time.

It has been proved, more particularly by means of comparative experiments, that when applying the process according to the invention, the ascorbic acid and dehydro-ascorbic acid content of the sterilised, stable product was absolutely equal to that of the fresh, untreated raw material, whereas during storage of the product this content remained at the same level.

According to the invention further measures may be taken for reducing the chances of oxidation, particularly of the ascorbic acid; for instance the preservation may take place as soon as possible after the juice or the milk respectively has been obtained, in order to stop immediately the inner oxidation; in the case of vegetable juices the juice may be extracted and treated as soon as possible after harvesting or gathering the fruit or the vegetables.

Furthermore according to the invention the preparation and treatment may be conducted so as to exclude oxygen or oxygen compounds.

Finally, it is advisable to prevent the juice or the sense.

l milk respectively from coming into contact with the oxidation promoting catalysers, such Vas coplper, silver, iron, etc. during preparation and preservation; that implies for instance, that when using a tubular heater for carrying the invention vinto eiect, the tubes will preferably not be made As various modications may be made in they process herein described without departing from the scope of the invention, it is to be understood that all matter herein set forth is to be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting More particularly, the duration and degrees of heating are not critical; they may be increased within very broad limits andthey may be decreased as far as the circumstances allow, provided a sterile product be obtained. When treating milk the final temperature will have to be chosen higher, for instance about 130 C. (266 F.) as has been proposed heretofore.

Having thus described and ascertained my said invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, what I claim as newV and desire to be secured by Letters Patent is:

"A process for sterilizing edible liquids, which includes the steps of causing the liquid to iiow in an elongated once through path in a stream having a cross-sectional area which is small as compared to the length of the path and at a velocity sufficient to establish turbulent flow, and rapidly heating the ilowing liquid by supplying heat thereto at a Varying rate rapidly decreasing in the direction of flow and suiicient to elevate its temperature to at least C. in less than one second. and to at least C. in not more than two seconds, and thereafter supplying heat to the liquid at a materially lower rate until the liquid acquires a temperature not less than C. nor substantially higher than C. and sucient to effect permanent and complete inactivation of oxidases.

JOHANNES DE BOER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,217,261 Stevens Oct. 8, 1940 2,239,397 North et al Apr. 22, 1941 2,270,540 Mallory Jan. 20, 1942 

